Tom Kim produced one of the moments of the day during the weather-delayed first round of the 2023 PGA Championship.
The South Korean, who has already made a name for himself on the PGA Tour as one of game's next generation of stars, only bolstered his appeal when cameras captured the hilarious moment he fell into a creek at Oak Hill and emerged with his legs and shirt covered in mud.
It happened on the par-4 6th hole (his 15th) as darkness fell in Rochester following a near two-hour delay in the morning due to frost. As such, the 20-year-old thought the incident might have gone undetected, only to find out he'd gone viral after signing for a three-over 73 that has him seven behind Bryson DeChambeau.
After his round, Kim gave a hilarious play-by-play detailing how events unfolded from his perspective...
"I think the world has seen enough already of it, but I hit it over in the mud and I was hoping I'd be able to find it," he told Sky Sports. "I was hoping they wouldn't show this.
"I thought it was worth finding and as soon as I got in, I got my feet wet and I thought it's too late to come back from it. I wasn't able to find my ball and basically my legs were inside the mud and I wasn't able to get myself out for a minute.
"You see me there, you see me disappear, I was talking to Joe [Skovron, his caddie], I might just go in the water and wash myself off. I took a bath over there. I felt like it was going to be better than just having mud so I thought it was going to be better for me to wash my pants off.
"The worst thing was, I apologise to Nike, but the shirt is just completely ruined."
"I miss days when I played on a Tour without cameras." @KiraDixon asking Tom Kim about THAT viral moment 🤣 pic.twitter.com/0ETpW7tpjcMay 19, 2023
The clip then appears to show Kim taking another tumble but all was under control, sort of.
"That's just me taking a bath right there, yeah. It wasn't actually that bad but the mud was getting really cold under me feet and I thought, 'Man, navy seal training is going to be pretty hard'.
"But the water wasn't great and once I got out I was so focused on trying to get my shot ready, see I got myself cleaned out. I've had better days for sure.
"After that incident, I was talking to Sam [Burns] and he was like, 'I hope there was cameras out'. Well, I thought it was too late in the afternoon, no-one is going to be out here. Clearly I was wrong because it's a Major championship and it's 8.30 at night and you guys got all of it.
"You know, I miss days when I played on a tour without cameras."
Kim will be hoping for a less adventurous second round as he seeks to close the gap to the top and put himself in contention to capture a maiden Major title.
